Bungie Weekly Update: 12/03/2010

I stumbled onto a forum post on Tuesday celebrating the launch of the Noble Map Pack, not because the player was excited at the prospect of three brand new maps, but because this particular poster assumed that the official release meant that our updates were no longer going to make mention of the new multiplayer spaces.

But see, I was in the privileged position of being able to spy the DLC team’s collective efforts from my side of the studio, and I simply can’t allow all of their hard work – and the potential for you to upgrade your Halo: Reach multiplayer experience – to slip from my grasp and spiral slowly away into the dark, deadly void without using this weekly vessel to make some space waves and save you from certain disaster.

So guess what, unnamed celebrant who cheered for a Noble Map Pack ceasefire?

Noble Map Pack Blasts Off!

We are live! In exchange for 800 space bucks, we’re prepared to offer you not one, not two, but three brand new multiplayer arenas expertly crafted by our crafty multiplayer experts. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, we prepared three ‘Quick Look’ videos prior to disembarking for Turkey-laden shores all the way back in November, and we think they do a delectable job of stuffing you full of savory gameplay and sweet commentary from the talented oddballs who bedecked each with an array of tasty visual splendor.

It’s Good to Play Together

Oddly enough, day one of the Noble Map Pack’s official Xbox life was greeted with a substantial amount of ire when it was learned that we’d prevented just about every player from joining just about every playlist unless they gave us 800 Microsoft Points and downloaded the map pack.

Low Blow from the Grave

Of course, that brand of extortion is well outside of even our ethical boundaries and the rumor itself was totally without merit. The culprit? If you’re in a playlist that makes use of the Noble Map Pack and you don’t have access to the new maps, the game will message you in the lobby to let you know that the newness is recommended. Whether or not you ultimately decide to pull the trigger and make the purchase won’t affect your ability to play, though, and the only playlist you can’t play without the Noble Map Pack is the DLC-only offering designed to pump out nothing but Noble.

If you have any questions about the way it all works, feel free to stop into our Noble Map Pack FAQ to read all about it.

But it’s Bad to NOT Play Together

It's not all fun and games. There’s chum in the water and the oily slick of gore and guts has led the Banhammer straight to a school of boosters, idlers, and service tag modifiers. If you’re a practitioner of the art of not playing, or of any of the other undesirable behaviors listed in the preceding sentence, you’re soon to find your account in a significantly downgraded status, ranging from a credit suspension to an outright ban. We’re keeping the exact metrics for the imposition of these new penalties under wraps, but as always, we’ve ensured accuracy via extensive due diligence.

PLAY NICE. We’re not asking.

And We’re Back!

Well that’s a bit of a stretch, but we did record a foreshortened, less professional than usual version of the Bungie Podcast this week. Three dudes from the DLC team, Derek Carroll, Sam Jones, and Jason Sussman, tackled questions obtained from our Twitter and mused philosophically about what flavor of pizza they enjoy the most. I myself spoke out about a pornographic Forge Rube Goldberg we stumbled across in the community files collection. If those sound like topics that might interest you, hit the link below and get ready for a whopping thirty minutes of freshly roasted podcast.

If you want more in your podcast cup, we’re going to try to get another one up and ready to go next week. But we’re definitely not stupid enough to make any concrete promises on this front. Lesson lurnd.

Upgrades

Halcylon noticed that some of the older wallpapers designed for mobile devices look a little busted on the latest and greatest hardware, so he took some time out of his busy schedule and whipped up a few new, higher resolution offerings. Click on any of the images below to access the highest resolution copy destined to dress your phone in fashionable Bungie-themed attire.

Forgeamanjaro!

So, yeah. The final days of the Forgetacular contest came bearing gifts. Hundreds of submissions shot out of the sky like a sleigh on fire, plowed into the studio chimney, and nearly brought the entire building down in a hail of fire, brimstone, and expertly crafted map variants. We’re steadily making our way through the wreckage and let’s just say that we’re really glad we bought ourselves a few extra days by including the word “about” in the official contest legalese.

Well done, community cartographers. We promise to put as much of this content as we can to good use. We had already come across multiple offerings worthy of matchmaking and our hope is that the best stuff was saved for last, with map makers using as much time as possible for play testing and iteration.

We’d love to show off some of the better maps we’ve already come across, but until we’re locked in, we’re going to keep the potential winners under wraps.

For now:

PLEASE KEEP YOUR MAP SUBMISSIONS IN YOUR FILE SHARE!

We’ve already come across a number of email submissions stuffed with links that lead to nowhere. Not only will we be looking for a handful of winners, we’ll also likely be incorporating a significant number of "non-winning" map entries into matchmaking. If you delete the map variant from Bungie.net, we have no way to locate or recover it. Which totally sucks for you, for us, and for everyone who wants to play your hot new map in matchmaking.

Blame Stosh

Stosh wants me to tell you about the mobile version of Bungie.net that he’s been working on with the online team. But he’s worried that I’ll spin you up and get you all hot and bothered about a fully-operational battle station boasting feature parity with the full version of Bungie.net. The reality is that the mobile site, which does exist, will likely launch with an awesome (and free) subset of Bungie.net’s features.

Like so:

We'll likely tell you all about it next week. For now, here's a portable version of this week's Blame Stosh.

That crash from jumping the broken bridge may have knocked your systems a little too hard, as now they're completely inoperable - so you must complete this mission HUDless! But don't worry. Normal difficulty is your biggest threat in this challenge - just be patient, and you'll get through this! We promise!